Egypt has conveyed that it wants to revive the â€˜golden era of friendshipâ€™ that it enjoyed with India during the formative days of the Non-Aligned Movement and is looking forward to joint ventures and increased bilateral trade during the first visit by a high level leader since President Hosni Mubarak stepped down.

In his first international visit since taking over, the new Foreign Minister of Egypt, Nabil Al-Araby, said there is a conscious decision in Cairo to revive ties. â€œWe want to revive the golden era of friendship with India as a big brother. We want trade, we want joint ventures and we want bilateral visits,â€ he said in his address at the United Service Institute of India here.

The minister, who served as Egyptâ€™s ambassador to India for two years starting 1981, said there was scope for increasing the $3-billion trade volume between the two countries. â€œWe hope the leaders of today will stand together like the leaders of yesterday to revive the golden era of friendship... let us intensify political engagement,â€ Al-Araby said, referring to the Nehru- Nasser association.